M's trips of many firsts: Washington, DC

My niece M. is 15+ years old. She has lived with me for 2 years. I promised her a trip to  a big city as an incentive for focusing in her studies. Luckily for us, she did improve her grades (from Cs/Ds to As/Bs). YES!

I had a meeting scheduled in late March for Alexandria, VA/Washington DC and arranged for M. to accompany me. She has flown before but never been in a big city with metro/rail systems. She was not enamored of history either. Her first comment to me, when I told her about going to WashDC was "Do we have to do that that history stuff?' I replied, M. WashDC is history in every inch of its buildings, roads, and land."

We flew into Chicago. Her first glimpse of the big city. We switched planes in Chicago. She took charge of finding our way through the airport and for a 'newbie' she did not do badly. We went from one concourse to the other without wrong turns, unnecessary delays and with only minimum prompts from me (at least this is my version of the story).

We landed at Reagan/National in WashDC and headed to Alexandria to find the hotel.  "Don't tell me!", she said over and over as she, again, took charge of finding our way through the airport to get our luggage, to get the bus to the rail system, and to negotiate our way through the metro system.

It was fun watching her eyes grow wide and hearing the fascination in her voice as we went underground to wait on the trains and use the ticket machines. For a child who was raised in the countryside of  North Carolina and whose most technological exposure to moving people transport systems was the fast moving walkways at MSP and escalators, she did good! We got from the airport to the hotel in Alexandria with only a minimum of wrong turns, unnecessary delays and prompts from me (at least this is my version of the story).

We arrived at the hotel with luggage intact and no major travel hassles!